Swim for Me
by Sin of Nutella
Summary: -A Request- Why did he look at her like that, with such hunger, with such sadness? Natsume and Mikan have to deal with being partners in their swimming class; and that means they have to try their hardest to not rip each others heads off. What if Natsume's inner demons come to surface when he's swimming, how will Mikan deal with them?


**This is simply a one-shot; a request. Sorry if you were expecting more. This ended up being a bit shorter than I hoped for, but it didn't turn out too bad at least. Now, forward on with the story. Enjoy!**

 **Swim for Me**

It was time to swim for our favourite elementary class B. The class that Natsume and Ruka dreaded more than all others, because of the fangirls that refused to leave them alone.

The worst part was that they had to wear speedos, courtesy of Narumi the pedo.

It wasn't as though this was the first time that Natsume had wore them, no, he just preferred his trunks more. He also liked them more than the feminine freak so he felt tempted to burn the man's hair.

Maybe burning his body down to his ashes would make him feel some sort of delight. No, there was no point in that. He would simply get in even bigger trouble with Persona.

He didn't dare think about the punishments that would ensue. Natsume unconsciously rubbed his neck in a tender manner; remembering last time's scars.

The only good thing about this whole thing was that the girls had to wear bikinis. The boys had protested after all; saying that it wasn't fair since they were the only ones who had to wear something embarrassing.

He smirked with a feral look in his eyes as he thought about a certain brown-haired klutz. But his expression morphed into a frown, when he realised that all the boys would see her in a bikini.

Just then, Mikan stepped out of the girl's changing room; accompanied by none other than Hotaru of course. They were arguing yet again about another trifle matter.

A second later, Mikan was sent flying across the room because of the Baka gun. Ruka winced next to Natsume, out of pity for Mikan.

"Imai sure can be cruel," he muttered as he stared at Mikan's pitiful form. Natsume only snorted as he hid the slight worry he felt. There's no point worrying about Polkadots, she'll get up like always.

Just as he knew she would, mikan did get up as she rubbed her head. Her eyes became watery as she looked at Hotaru.

"Hotaru, you meanie!"

Hotaru simply stored the Baka gun away and snapped some pictures of Ruka and Natsume. Ruka ran after Hotaru to get the embarrassing pictures from her, but Hotaru had many gadgets to help her.

It wasn't a fair fight.

That left Mikan and Natsume alone, since the others were still changing. Natsume's eyes widened when the girl turned to him, with her hands on her hips.

 _Shit, when did polkadots get so cute?_ He covered his mouth with his hand and looked away as a dark blush coated his cheeks. Mikan gave the boy a confused stare.

The girl was wearing a mainly white bikini set with some stripes on it. And of course it made her look innocent, practically everything the girl owns makes her look pure.

"Why are you covering your mouth?"

Natsume still didn't turn to look at her but let his hand drop from where it was resting: on top of his mouth.

"Shut up, strawberry patch."

She immediately pointed to him as she trembled in barely concealed anger. How dare he!?

"Stop looking at my underwear, you pervert!"

"Go away, ugly," he turned to look at her this time as the blush dissolved. Mikan stuck out her tongue at him with a 'hmph' and went away, to find Hotaru. Her journey wasn't long since she stumbled into her friend near the swimming pool.

"Hotaru!"

The girl jumped out of delight at her friend, but didn't stop to think about the fact that Hotaru wouldn't want to be hugged. Despite being someone who knows Hotaru the most, Mikan tends to forget the type of person her cold and money-motivated friend is. Hotaru swiftly stepped to her right, to avoid the incoming girl.

The brown-haired girl started to realise that her arms weren't around her best friend yet, so she opened her eyes. But alas, it was too late to stop her body.

Everyone rushed out of the changing rooms to the pool when they heard a banshee's scream. It was loud, really loud. Talk about earsplitting, headache-inducing loud. Ruka's face became panicked as he sat on the cool surface and leaned forward, a little too forward; or maybe it was just an 'accidental' push from a certain ravenette.

The alarmed fangirls rushed to the pool in a flurry of panic, attempting to save their innocent Ruka-pyon. Natsume marched towards the crowd with his hands clenched in fists.

"Imai," his tone was icy cold, enough to lower the temperature in the room they were supposed to be having a class in. Where's Narumi when you need him?

"Hyuuga," Hotaru's voice was all business-like and just as cold if not colder. Her mouth slightly opened as she seemed to remember something. The girl whipped out her camera, out from seemingly nowhere. No one knew how she carried all the stuff she did.

Then the queen of blackmail turned towards the pool with bad intentions, very bad intentions. Ruka and Mikan were struggling in the water until they leaned on each other and took long, deep breaths. They looked at each other and then at Hotaru with anger on their faces. The innocent pair never stopped to think about how intimate their pose might look from a certain angle.

'Flash'

Their eyes widened when they noticed that Hotaru took a picture of them. The fact that she had a small evil smile on her face only fueled their anger further, because that picture could ruin their lives.

"It seems that you're all quite excited for this lesson. Oh, and do get out of the pool, we're about to start soon anyway," Narumi made his presence known as he smiled. Though his smile wilted slightly when he felt someone glaring holes into his side; he knew the boy behind the glare. A sweatdrop made way on his face when the glaring continued.

Sumire helped Ruka up, and out of the pool. With a noisy sigh, she reached her hand down for Mikan to grab. Mikan eyes became sparkly as she took the green-eyed girl's hand.

"Thanks Permy!"

Sumire's eye twitched quite visibly as her body shook. She resembled a cat more than anything at that moment

"How many times do I have to tell you, my name is not Permy!"

She started to lash out at Mikan like a cat, but was immediately held back by Koko and Kitsuneme. Koko knew what she was thinking, and it sounded pretty bad for Mikan.

"Everyone, in front of the pool!"

Narumi uncharacteristically exclaimed, as he pointed at the ground with his eyes closed dramatically. They all sat down, though a few were reluctant. Especially Sumire, who put up quite a struggle. It took the combined efforts of Koko, Kitsuneme, Anna and Nonoko. She was determined to make Mikan go through hell.

Natsume simply rolled his eyes and stood next to Ruka, not bothering to listen to Narumi. Narumi's eye twitched but he didn't address the red-eyed boy. Mikan found that to be rather unfair.

"Okay class, today I've decided something special for you all. An interesting activity that is sure to reap good results. After all, it is I that came up with it," Narumi shook his head causing his hair to fly around before framing his face like normal. Sometimes he started to act like a true narcissist and the worst part was that he never realised it.

"You will all be paired up, by me of course. Now, let's see. Anna and Kitsneme, Yu and Nonoko, Hoshino and Yura, Mochiage and Wakako, Hotaru and Ruka, Natsume and Mikan and last but not least, Sumire and Koko."

"What!?"

The whole class stood up on their feet to shout at Narumi. Especially Mikan and Sumire, for obvious reasons of course.

"Narumi-sensei, you can't do this. Pair Natsume up with Permy!"

"My name's not Permy! Natsume deserves much more than this stupid girl, pair him up with me!"

Narumi only smiled, with both eyes closed. It was a sign to show that he wouldn't change his mind, not that easily.

"All pairs have a person who's an excellent swimmer and a person that can barely swim or can't swim at all," he explained the reasoning of why they were all paired up like this.

It didn't really do much, but they all believed that he didn't do it because he had a personal vendetta against them. Well, that's what most of them believed. Natsume for one believed; that the man was doing this for amusement.

"Okay, no more complaints or protests. Everyone, in the pool!"

He pointed behind them with his finger, rather dramatically. Just then, the feminine man stripped off his clothes. It turned out that he had been hiding sparkly golden swimwear under his clothes the entire time. Natsume and Hotaru secretly gagged, though no one saw of course because it was secret.

Mikan gave Hotaru a worried stare, wondering if her best friend would actually learn swimming this time. Hotaru had tried, very hard to swim, even with her brother but it simply never worked.

 _Ahh, I should worry more about my 'partner'. That nasty fox makes me so mad._

The girl slapped her cheeks and shook her head before quickly walking to the pool. For once, she would try to not argue with Natsume or rile him up, codeword: try. The girl looked at her reflection in the water before slowly kicking her legs. This time, Mikan was able to ease into the pool gently, though she was already wet before entering; thanks to a certain someone.

Natsume came in after her, though he looked a lot more uncomfortable and cautious. Why would one be cautious of water? Mikan didn't understand him, and wouldn't pretend to either.

He looked up at her with guarded eyes, as he leaned back, impatiently waiting for Narumi's instructions.

 _I should've skipped this class. But Ruka…, he's not safe here with Imai anyway. She made a mistake by pushing him into the pool, and she flashed a picture of him and Mikan. Damn Imai._

Narumi cat walked to the pool before making a rather noteworthy dive, that caused the water to splash onto all those around him. This agitated Sumire more than anyone else in the pool.

Sumire was trying to get out of the pool, and as far away as possible from the chlorinated water. Her cat-dog alice had some strange effects, that really did bring out her animal weaknesses. Her cat part was much more instinctual than her dog-half.

That meant that she had to deal with loathing water, but bathing was different; as long as the water remained hot. Sadly for her, and everyone around her; the water was not hot. No, the water was cool and that wasn't enough for her. ' _Why didn't they have a heated pool instead of this?_ ' was the only thought going through the girl's mind.

Mikan watched Narumi with wide eyes, as she tried to ignore Natsume to the best of her abilities. He simply rolled his eyes and snorted. The sound drawing a glare from Mikan, yes, it was loud and he did it on purpose.

Koko had an unnerving and all-knowing grin on his face like usual, as he held Sumire back from leaving the vicinity. He knew what went through the mind of Natsume a little too well, sometimes it would disturb him but other times he felt as though he had really good blackmailing material. The boy was too scared to actually blackmail the black cat though.

Natsume would not take blackmail well.

"Okay, children," the extravagant man that is their teacher clapped his hands to garner attention. "Our first exercise will be to float backwards."

The excited students readily started to let their bodies up, while the others that weren't so enthusiastic struggled. Like Narumi had said, he'd sorted them into pairs with a person that could swim and a person that couldn't swim. Mikan and Ruka were particularly good swimmers, at the top of their class.

Hotaru tried lifting her body upwards but ended up slipping, which caused her to swallow water. The dark-haired girl coughed and coughed, garnering the attention of Ruka. The fair-haired boy stared at his partner in worry. Despite him acting tough around people, Ruka was truly a kind person that worried about others.

That's why he was so willing to give up his happiness for Natsume.

Hotaru, as though sensing his intent held out her hand as to stop him from coming any closer. She would do this by herself, she didn't need some puny rabbit-boy to help her.

"Relax, you're too tense. The trick is to lift your stomach up," Ruka gave advice to the shocked girl.

The girl decided to take his advice, and tried to do exactly that. It didn't work but it was much better than last time, and she felt slightly hopeful. It was a strange feeling indeed.

* * *

Back to our yin and yang pair. Things weren't working out too well.

"How hard can it possibly be to relax?"

Mikan questioned Natsume with frustration evident on her features. Frustration because of the boy in front of her, because of the boy that refused to surrender himself to water.

What was he so afraid of anyways?

"Shut up Polkadots," the boy who was the cause of her frustration said with his body tensed. Water was strong, it was too much. He felt weak, far too weak and he didn't like it one bit. No, he loathed it. He hated the water that surrounded him, he hated the water that made him useless. _I hate fe_ -

"Look, you don't have to tell me what it is but we're partners. If I don't even have a clue what it is, how am I supposed to help you?"

Mikan interrupted his train of thought, causing the boy to uncharacteristically flinch. The innocent girl with a head full of caramel hair frowned at him, it was out of…...worry and curiosity? For him?

His stare dug holes into her head, as though questioning why he was about to do something so uncharacteristic.

"You don't understand. Your Alice isn't compressed by water. You don't know how it is to feel weak, you don't know anything," he spat out the last words with poison lacing his tone. The boy almost felt guilty when the girl lowered her head, covering her expression. He wanted to know what the innocent, careless girl was thinking about.

"Ha, you nasty fox. Did you expect me to cry?"

Mikan lifted up her head, as she glared at him.

Natsume hid his shocked expression behind his normal stoic mask, but he inwardly grinned. How ridiculous to think that Mikan would cry from something like that.

"Polka, I didn't know you were such a rebel. Ignoring what Narumi says."

The girl in front of him immediately blushed, thinking inside her head, ' _I'm not a rebel!_ ' because she definitely wasn't one, no, not at all.

Even though it sounded kinda cool, just a little bit.

"At least I can float, you demon," was her simple and aggravating response. She was good at making Natsume mad, really good. Natsume simply did not appreciate this quality of hers.

No, he didn't appreciate it at all.

So, to prove her wrong, he would float. It wasn't hard after all, but the boy simply hated being surrounded by so much water with no escape. Well, there was a stairway leading out but he was going to ignore that.

He surrendered himself to the water, trying hard not to tense his muscles. It took effort and soon he heard a gasp from Mikan, which caused him to open his eyes. The blue, boring ceiling greeted his eyes, and then he realised; his feet weren't _touching_ the ground. The boy couldn't believe it.

He was floating!

Was it truly this easy? Just some words from a certain caramel-haired girl and he would be floating like never before. Despite his fear of water, despite how his Alice would be completely nullified, he did it.

All thanks to one stupid girl, though Natsume would never acknowledge that of course. He would honestly rather die than utter a word of praise for this girl.

Mikan, to her credit was grinning like an idiot. Proud of her first student.

"Ha, I knew I was a good teacher," the girl said rather snobbishly. Mikan turned to look at the nasty fox, with a coy look on her face. Though the look left her face very quickly.

Natsume was staring holes into her face, jealous of the way she could smile.

Mikan gaped, confused about the look on his face. It was dark, awfully dark for a boy his age. Why did he look at her with such hunger, such sadness?

The boy had seen the rather humongous smile on her face, and that smile had him thinking about things he could honestly do better without thinking of.

Yes, he; Natsume Hyuuga was jealous of Mikan Sakura.

The boy was jealous of her laugh, her smile, her ability to cheer everyone up and that godawful determination of hers. She never gave up, never. The girl probably didn't even know what giving up meant.

And her entire life in general made Natsume yearn for something more. He wanted her, he wanted her smile, her laugh and her life.

He wanted her very existence.

But someone as pure as her shouldn't be around him. Natsume would only taint the innocent girl, he would destroy her, break her a thousand times over just so he could fix her and be called a hero.

He knew it was fucked up, oh, he knew it was wrong.

But Natsume needed her, so very badly. He could hardly control himself.

But at the end of the day, they were on two opposite sides of the same spectrum. They would never be, they could never be. Someone like Natsume didn't deserve Mikan.

* * *

 **That ended up being much darker than I expected it to be. Sorry if you were expecting it to be all fluff and everything. There was hardly any romance in this because they're children, so I doubt they constantly have love on their mind. If you like this story, then please check out my other stories (yes, that was shameless advertising).**


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